Merchant Services Information

HighRiskPay.com put together cool infographic that explains the 6 of the benefits of partnering with a good merchant services provider.

Welcome to bonus part 13 of our 12 part series – Tell Me the Best Merchant Solution for My Business.”   In this chapter of our series we will discuss the following questions: “Can my payment processor actually help me increase my sales?”

The answer to this question is a resounding yes.  Any credit merchant service provider  that is good at what they do can help you do this.

Here are 7 ways that you merchant services provider can help you improve your sales.

1. Custom In Store Receipts – Based on what your customers buy from you or have bought from you they should get custom receipts printed up for them upon purchase by your merchant equipment.  Your merchant services provider should be able to give you  merchant equipment and software that is capable of this.  This can bring them back to your customers to your store sooner and have them buy more.

2. Electronic Gift Cards – Gift cards improve your sales because they drive people to your store to buy the gift cards. They drive new customers to your store after they receive a gift card and they can fall in love with it and come back again. They drive customers that love your store back that otherwise would not come to your store.  They drive people to your store that spend all of the money on the gift card and then more.  In addition, not all gift cards are redeemed meaning that you make nearly 100% profit on unredeemed gift cards.  Any good merchant services provider should offer this program to you and make it easy for you to set up and maintain.

3 & 4. Electronic Referral & Loyalty Programs – Your merchant account should come with the ability to reward customers that refer you and that come back with special discounts and promotions.  This is simple to set up and very powerful for your business.

5. Promotion Codes for eCommerce – People will be driven to your website when they get email alerts telling them of a 20% off sale if they enter promo code “BigSale20.”  You can easily set this up if you partner with a merchant service provider that can offer you a good internet gateway and shopping card solution such as Authorize.net or PlugNPay.

6. Shopping Cart Abandonment Emails – If you send customers a triggered email after they add a product or service to an internet shopping cart and then fail to make a purchase, you will regain 30% to 40% of those purchases.  If you do not have a merchant account provider that is capable of giving you this solution you are missing out on a lot of business.

7. Upsell Website Emails – Have you ever purchased something on-line on Amazon.com and were then told by the website, “People who liked what you are about to buy also liked X, Y, and Z.”   Amazon does this because it is a great way to increase average order size and improve your customer shopping experience.  Your website should do the same.

Welcome to part 12 of our 12 part series – Tell Me the Best Merchant Solution for My Business.”   In this chapter of our series we will discuss the following questions: “Can I accept electronic gift cards?  If so, why should I?  What do I have to gain and lose by doing so?”

The first question you should ask yourself is should I accept electronic gift cards. The answer is that every retailer, restaurant, and ecommerce store should accept electronic gift cards. If you do not you are missing out on large profits. The next question is if you are not a retail, ecommerce, or restaurant merchant, should you accept electronic gift cards. Ask yourself this question, “is my product or service the type of product or service that people would like to receive as a gift?” If you answer affirmative to that question, then accepting electronic gift cards is good for your business.

The second question is why will accepting electronic gift cards help your business? The fact is that accepting electronic gift cards will boost your sales because it will create word of mouth advertising for your business, and it will drive more customers to your store who will buy more than what is on the gift cards. In addition, some gift cards will simply not be redeemed therefore you will have near 100% profit on all unredeemed gift cards.

They key is to take your gift card program and electronically integrate it with your merchant services processing company so that all money flows into your bank account daily, all customers know their exact balance on their gift card and you can eliminate your risk of gift card fraud.

Keep on reading.  Although we have finished 12 out of 12 parts of our 12 part merchant service series , we will have a bonus chapter on the topic of “Can my payment processor actually help me increase my sales?”

Having been in the merchant services processing business for many years I have noticed that most merchant services providers tend to jack up their customers merchant processing fees after about one year of service. In the cases where a merchant services provider sells a customer at a price that is unprofitable in order to get a deal they usually do a massive price increase about 2 months after a contract is signed.

This leads me to the conclusion that most merchant services providers are not a trusted partner. Unless you are partnered with a company like Choice Merchant Services you should expect large pricing increases without warning. Make sure you check your statements every month to make sure your merchant services provider is not trying to take advantage of you.

How do online merchant services solutions Authorize.net & PlugNPay differ?

Online merchant services can be more expensive than traditional retail payment processing, with higher transaction fees, merchant services gateway fees, and the expense of setting up an online shopping cart.

Your e-commerce payment gateway must integrate with the shopping cart and is a critical component of your online payment processing system. The gateway is a service provider that authorizes payments and encrypts sensitive payment data, making the shopping experience you offer customers safe and secure.

We work with two different e-commerce gateways, Authorize.net and PlugNPay, and are often asked about the differences between the two. Which gateway is right for your business?

First, we offer low merchant services rates and fees for both options, with easy setup and a variety of free shopping carts that integrate with any website.

We are able to offer both Authorize.net and PlugNPay with rates starting as low as 1.05% and each allows e-commerce, phone, or mail order payments. Online retailers who also operate a physical store can use these gateways for in-store payments with the speed and security of an encrypted internet connection.

Here are the key benefits of each online merchant services solution; see which one might suit your business best!

Authorize.net

• Merchants can accept secure credit card payments from a mobile device.
• The only all-in-one solution to accept electronic payments from anywhere, for any type of transaction.
• Credit card and echeck payments accepted from your retail store.

PlugNPay

• All major credit cards and ACH echecks accepted.
• Real-time transaction reports and queries.
• QuickBooks integration.
• Affiliate management and coupon management systems.

Authorize.net also comes with its own API and an advanced fraud detection suite, while PlugNPay offers their Fraud Trak2 advanced anti-fraud security protection.

Your e-commerce payment gateway should be flexible, secure, and affordable for you, the retailer. It’s also important that your gateway can grow with the business, especially as customers choose to make mobile payments and shop online at an increasing rate.

In working with partners like Authorize.net and PlugNPay, we are able to offer highly customized merchant services equipment, tailored to your business. We’ll help you get started, with free merchant services equipment or software, low processing costs, and simple, ready-to-go solutions. Contact us today to discuss your needs and see if you qualify for free merchant services equipment.

Many merchant service providers sell on price.  They work to offer the lowest payment processing rates.  Yet business owners, CFO’s and controllers want more than savings on their payment processing.  They want the best solution for them and the vast majority of us don’t want to spend hours online, doing research to find the best solution.  This is where the best merchant services providers come in – they offer a real expert who will listen to the needs of the business and then find the best solution for them.  In other words, the best merchant services providers make it simple for less.

The golden rule is simple: treat others the way you want to be treated.  This is the best rule for life and for business.  When looking for a payment processing solution these are the questions that are going through the purchaser’s mind:

1. How much am I paying now and how much less can I be paying if I switch providers?

2. What is the best merchant software and merchant equipment for my needs?

3. Do I need software?  Do I need equipment?  How much will this cost?

4. Will this solution I am getting integrate into my accounting systems and payment systems or no?  If not, do I need a new system? If so, how do I get them to integrate?  Is the integration easy?

5. What forms of payment should I take and can I take?  Can I accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Gift Cards, Promo Codes on my website, Debit Card, or  eCheck?

6. What solution can give my customers the easiest shopping experience?  How can your solution help me increase my sales by upsell, cross-sell?

7. What mobile payment solutions should I take?  Do I need a mobile payment solution?

8. How secure is my money?  How long after a payment is made until the funds are in our business checking account?

9. How secure is my customers data, including their credit card information?  Is the solution you are providing me PCI complaint?

10. What liabilities am I accepting by accepting electronic payments?  What liabilities am I protected from by doing business with you?

11. Can I take a line of credit out on my merchant payments?  What is my interest rate?  What is the approval process look like?

12. Can I accept electronic gift cards?  If so, why should I?  What do I have to gain and lose by doing so?

Bonus Topic: Can my payment processor actually help me increase my sales?

These are the questions that matter to customer of a merchant service provider.  The best provider will know the customer’s business and have a simple and useful answer to these types of questions.  Over the next few weeks we are going to explore the 12 questions above in detail as part of our 12 part series – “Tell Me the Best Merchant Solution for My Business.”

Verifone Merchant Services Equipment in Action

The Verifone VX510 is one of the easiest to use merchant equipment solutions for a small to a medium business.

Watch this quick 1 minute video to see how the Verifone VX570 terminal works and how that can help your business.

You can read more about the VX570 and also find out how to get it for free.  This merchant equipment offers robust features that can make running merchant services the last thing on your mind because of how well it will works and the money it will save you.